This was pretty much as advertised, for better or worse. A group of 22-year-old women (mostly American) have been abducted by hostile aliens and are on their way somewhere to be sold. The ship has trouble and the aliens leave their human cargo on a nearby ice planet until they can return for them. In the meantime, the women decide to escape and take their chances on the snowy planet. Our narrator, Georgie, goes to look for help and encounters a giant blue alien who seems very taken with her.

I read the new, special edition release of this book. There's an author's note at the end explaining that she made some small changes, including removing a description of sexual assault near the beginning. (Other reviewers mentioned this scene as being graphic and unnecessary to the plot, so I would recommend the special edition if you can find it.) It also included an epilogue and a novella about Georgie and Vektal, rounding out their love story.

There's some steamy content here, but also a mostly-non-consensual encounter stemming from a misunderstanding. It doesn't seem to bother Georgie, but some readers may be triggered.

The plot and writing are good, not great. There are some unbelievable coincidences that solve story problems. I was a little uncomfortable with how the primitive ("barbarian") native people on the planet were portrayed, although when we see things from Vektal's perspective, it's clear that his thinking is somewhat more sophisticated than Georgie sees him at first. Also they sound very much like the Na'vi from Avatar, minus the horses.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

Look, I don't know how to review this book, it is just a super hard book to review because this is unlike anything I have ever read.

Am I happy I jumped on this bandwagon? Yes
Am I going to read the next book in the series? Yep
Is this book full of ridiculousness? Yes, for sure
Did it bring me joy? Yeah, a lot actually

I think the author summed up the books best when she said ""Not every book has to be a Pulitzer-winning thinkpiece. I've always read escapist, happy fiction, so that's what I want to write, period."

And let's be honest, we could all use some escapist, happy fiction right now.

Listen...I had to do it. It has a cult following and I needed to see what the hype was about.

Was it literary perfection? No. Was I entertained? Hell yes. Will I be reading the rest of the series? Yes.

Welp. I think perhaps alien romance just isn't for me. I've heard a LOT about this one over the last few months from other romance readers, and having recently dipped my toes into monster bait romance (& loved it), I thought I'd give this much buzzed about sci fi romance a try. Alas, it was just too ridiculous for me. I think I still need some kind of contemporary basis for my sci fi romances, and this one was both too out there and more focused on a survival/action plot for my liking. The insta-lust/insta-love aside, once the plot turned into a whole mating/pregnancy circus, I really lost interest. I stuck it out for the end of the book but just skimmed the bonus epilogue, because at that point, I was pretty bored and over the whole saga.

I know this book has a ton of fans already, and I'm sure it will find even more fans with this special edition (I do love the new cover), but file this under being just not for me.

Sometimes I read improving middle grade literature, and sometimes I read smutty smutty smut -- this is particularly satisfying smut. I could delve into all kinds of criticism about the kinds of things this fantasy represents, but why spoil anyone's enjoyment? This is a blue horned alien getting it on with a trapped human woman on an ice planet. I really appreciated the strong messages that even with a fate/mate scenario, Georgie argued successfully for the women's ability to choose, and the extraordinary sweetness that is at the core of her relationship with Vektal. Honestly, I have more trouble believing that a modern 22 year old would successfully transition to living a primitive lifestyle than in the relationship writing, and that is saying something. It's got a fast paced plot, appealing characters, and is a wild, adventurous ride. Thank you, Tiktok, for promoting this book. I read the revised release advanced reader's copy and then listened to the older version audio book. Yep, read it through twice and found it entertaining both times. I can't wait to read the other women's stories, so I'll be sticking with the audio books for a while, since that seems to be the only version I can access at present. Two thumbs up for the additional materials/stories in the upcoming book release. I think fans will be pleased to see some further adventures.

Advanced readers' copy provided by Edelweiss. Also by Netgalley, but they took a while to approve me and I found it elsewhere.

What could have been better?
The writing and some of the pacing of the story.

What I enjoyed?
The writing at parts aside? I think this had EXCELLENT steam scenes. I love a book/erotica that dives right into those sections and they were absolutely perfect. I also thought the main man was very sweet and gave me great alpha vibes.

I would definitely recommend this book to my friends who love their books full of great steam scenes.

After seeing many people talk about Ruby Dixon and her Ice Planet Barbarian books, I was really interested in reading the book to see what all the hype was about. My first thought was that while I have enjoyed dark and/or paranormal romances in the past, I never thought I would find myself reading “blue alien smut”. This book caught me off guard and surprised me!

Georgie is the main female character and we experience this world through her eyes, after she is kidnapped by ‘evil’ aliens. These aliens have kidnapped her and multiple other woman who like her are young and don’t seem to have anyone in their life’s who would miss them and report them missing. While on the ship we unfortunately she how the evil aliens mistreat and rape some of the woman. After something happens the aliens are forced to abandon the woman on a random planet, so that they can later come get them. Georgie is volunteered to go out of the ship to try and find help. The planet is completely covered in ice and she soon ends up in a trap and passing out.

Vektal is the main male alien of this story and the chieftain of his people. He finds Georgie hanging on his animal trap and realizes that his ‘khui resonates inside’ him after seeing Georgie. This is the equivalent of a ‘soul mate’ for us and since female aliens are rare on the planet, Georgie is like a godsend to him. He is instantly ‘in love’ with her and will do anything to protect her.

The story evolves from there and we learn more about the Ice planet and the blue aliens that inhabit the planet. I actually enjoyed learning about the aliens and their way of living. The way the males care about woman and the extremes they are willing to go to protect them, was an enjoyable and refreshing experience to read. Woman are actually treated well, their feelings and thoughts are just as important of those of males. As a result of all that, I would recommend this book to people as long as they go into the book knowing that rape happens and is described in detail. Also that the aliens in the series are very much described almost as human looking other than the fact that they are 7 feet tall, blue skin, and have horns along with their male anatomy being different. Lastly that there is a lot of sex and it is described in detail, hence why this book has been described as smutty and spicy. If you enjoy all of that then you would most likely enjoy this book as well.

It was nice to see a slightly revised version of the original novella, plus the short story epilogue compiled into one volume. I'm glad to see a publisher was willing to take this on after its TikTok success! I think there are still a lot of consent issues in this series, but it's also joyfully silly at times. For the right audience, it's a great comfort read.

This is a very spicy, very fun read. If you can suspend disbelief for human-shaped aliens with horns for Saga, you can accept these blue, 7-feet-tall, gorgeous stud muffins. The main human character is taking no shit and not going down without a fight— the tone is like A Question of Navigation, but with sex. The story clips along, and the writing is technically good: not heavy on cliches, proper sentence structure, correct use of punctuation, no glaring errors.
I’ve been in a slump and stuck on reading for about a week, but stayed up until way past my bed time reading this— absorbing, steamy, enjoyable. Recommended for all readers open to erotica!

Okay, I understand the hype surrounding this book! It is a funny sci-fi romance with a great cast of characters you can't help but love. This updated edition is perfect for old and new fans a like. I will definitely be picking up more from this author and series.

For those familiar with Ruby Dixon, this was real fun. For those unaware, be prepared for alien erotica! I really loved Georgie. She was so sweet to the girls that she just met. Vektal and Georgie were a super fun pairing!

This story was interesting enough that I looked up the rest of the series. I enjoyed it, but the main character Georgie was frustrating at times. I liked the other main character as well. It was alright but not enough to continue the series.

This was just as much fun the second time around! I enjoyed that the majority of the book remained the same. The initial rape scene that occurs in the beginning on-page was removed - which is like an A+ decision in my book. It allowed us to still be in a high-stress and strange situation with the characters without it being triggering. The added content was even better!! I LOVED the new epilogue & extra novella that was included. I love a good conclusion and both of those worked so well for us to finish Georgie & Vektal’s story.

The special edition was genuinely just so fun and I can't wait to see how all the other books are changed. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for them. Also, let's take a moment to admire the beautiful cover! This cover is just really lovely, the color palette and the decision to make it illustrated was 10/10.

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for the advanced reader’s copy of the new Ice Planet Barbarians Special Edition!

ARC acquired by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“It wasn’t a monster come to eat me. It was this monster. Who’s come to eat me out."

I had to jump on the Alien Porn band wagon when I found out Berkley was making an exclusive edition of Ice Planet Barbarians. And you know what? I didn’t hate it. Is it good literature? Absolutely not? But Ruby Dixon truly has a way to capture an audience. I know there’s a split between the genuine fans of this series and the people who just want to meme it, and I just want to start off by saying if you are steering clear of this because of that one scene in the first chapter, please wait and pick up this special edition when it releases in November. The author has taken out that dark scene and alludes to it instead. The rest of the book is kept the same as the original.

We start off with a girl named Georgie who has been captured by tiny green aliens who have very large orange aliens on deck for security. Georgie is put into a cell with several other women who all fit her demographic and quickly learns that she was taken so she can be sold off along with the other women. The spaceship is forced to crash land on a different planet to be retrieved at a later time and Georgie quickly becomes their unofficial leader.

Georgie wanders off in search of food and shelter and finds herself caught in a trap and wakes up with a huge blue alien going down on her. The Stockholm Syndrome in this book is heavy, but I didn’t mind it too much. Georgie and Vektal, who reminds me of the Illidan from World of Warcraft, don’t let a little thing like a language barrier come between having some great sex and tromping through the snow to save the other women back at the spaceship.

My favorite part of this book was the Elder’s Cave that is actually a different spaceship crash where Vektal’s people originally came from. I wish this plotline was more fleshed out and expanded upon. I found myself more enthralled by the backstory of the sa-khui instead of the sexy times.

Overall, I feel like this was well worth the read for pure entertainment purposes and I will most likely pick up the rest of the series out of genuine curiosity.

Bonus Epilogue: Georgie Goes Hunting
This story is exclusive to the special edition from Berkley and gives readers more insight into Georgie adjusting to living on and ice planet and getting used to how the sa-khui live day-to-day life. I enjoyed seeing Georgie interacting with the other members of the tribe and the human women. I laughed way too hard at the beginning where there’s a whole chapter on counting toes and nipples.

Ice Planet Honeymoon: Vektal & Georgie
This story is part of the bonus content included in the special edition from Berkley. It takes place after book two in the series and may contain spoilers if you don’t want to know who the main characters are in the second book or who any of the other mated pairs in the series are. Vektal knows something is bothering Georgie but she won’t talk to him. When he pries the information out of him, he learns that she wants to take a honeymoon, a strange human tradition that he doesn’t understand. Georgie as ulterior motives for wanted to leave the tribal caves but that doesn’t deter them from having sex any chance they can get.

The special edition also includes an author’s note, a character list of everyone mentioned in the series, and a special excerpt from book two, Barbarian Alien. I think this speicail edition is going to be beautiful and bring more readers to this hot mess alien porn train wreck and I’m here for it.


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to preview this book.

Georgie is space-napped by offworlders along with other women. When they end up stranded on an alien world, she becomes their de facto leader. She ends up making contact with a local.

I think I may have read the original kindle book before as a prime read. But that did not detract from the alien smexy times. This is definitely an erotic

The characters are detailed enough to see individuals and there's enough world building you can see the inhospitableness of it. I wish there had been a bit more description with the flora and fauna.

For those readers that do not like extensive cursing and explicit sexual scenes, this book is not for you. If you do enjoy them, then by all means read at your pleasure.

Thank you again NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group.

Maybe its the new cover and look that made me finally take the plunge into the land of Not-Hoth? I felt zero interest when the old cover would pop up on my feeds, but seeing this one I actually wanted to read it (and maybe finally see what all the fuss was about?). And I'm not gonna lie, I got totally hooked and read it in one night. **So thank you so much to both NetGalley and Berkley for my eARC of this in exchange for an honest review!**

The premise and story were great, and instead of being mere backdrop for the "sexy scenes" I actually cared about what was happening, and enjoyed the descriptions and world building of this fantasy ice planet...and of course fell in love with Georgie and Vektal. For some it might be a stretch to find an alien sexy (especially one with horns, a tail and bluish skin) but if you're okay with sexy humanoid vamps and fae with only pointy teeth and ears to separate them, I say take the plunge...horns and tails may not be as big of a deal breaker as you may think.

This was pure guilty pleasure reading at its best - adventure, romance, sexy times, creative world building, humor and more. Highly recommend (that being said, it's definitely high in steam factor so the faint of heart should steer clear)! I'm hoping Berkley might pick up the next few in the series?!

I really love the Ice Planet Barbarians series. I read it for the first time a few months ago and was so excited when they announced the special edition. The new cover is perfect, and the bonus content contained in this edition was great. I loved reading a bit more about Vektal and Georgie from their points of view before the focus switches to the other couples.

I was also impressed that the author removed a rather dark moment from the beginning of the book that was included in earlier editions, simply alluding to the moment instead of actually showing it on page.

Reading this book has definitely helped me get out of reading slumps. If you're looking for a fun romance with a super adorable and loving hero and a tough heroine look no further. This is such a great sci-fi romance.

honestly, this had such a fun plot and was written well. though there wasn’t a ton of depth to the characters and 100% major consent issues across this entire book, i had a lot of fun reading the book.